


Freedom

by bloodandcream



Series: Aesthetics [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Aromantic Dean, Asexual Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 11:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4058467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodandcream/pseuds/bloodandcream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean squinted and leaned forward. He could not be seeing this right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Freedom

-

**2010**

-

Dean snuffled against his pillow and buried his face in it when he heard Cas shuffling quietly into their shared bedroom. Dean could probably sleep through it. Working the overnight shift was kind of brutal but the factory he worked at paid an incentive for the grave yard shift. It was summer and it was hot and miserable so the window had been left open since they didn’t have a/c, but that meant the blissful breeze kept shifting the curtains and it was too goddam light in their bedroom.

Groaning and rolling over Dean blinked and curled an arm under his pillow, watching Cas try to move around super stealthily so Dean wouldn’t wake up. He was naked. There was steam curling in to the room from the bathroom that was a foot outside the door. Cas was wet from his shower. Or just sweaty already. Cause it was too goddam hot. Dean was still adjusting to seeing him so much around the apartment after they’d been living together more than seven months now.

Cas had shown up late November last year asking about Dean’s advertisement for a roommate. He was more than happy to agree to sharing a one bedroom apartment for the low rent they’d split. He moved in with just a backpack and a duffel. Dean made sure to let him know he could eat anything he wanted from the kitchen, he didn’t mind sharing. The guy looked pretty down on his luck.

From what little Cas told him, Dean knew that he was going to school and was basically on his own. He figured Cas was so scarce at first because the semester was winding down. There wasn’t really much space in the apartment to hide, so he must of spent his time other places. He didn’t talk much. Said he studied at the library a lot. He had day classes and Dean had night work so yeah, they didn’t see each other much even the next semester.

It was summer now and Cas was working full time. He had a part time retail job he’d snagged last winter around the holidays. Dean had gotten him in to the factory where he worked on an assembly line part time too. After one so nauseatingly drunk night mid finals week about a month ago, Cas had spilled the beans on a few more things about himself. Dean maybe shared a few things too. Sharing and caring. Whatever. He was so drunk he didn’t remember all of their conversation. Just a few important parts.

But Cas seemed more comfortable around him now. They saw each other around the apartment a lot more after the school semester ended. They saw each other at work a few nights of the week. Dean kind of really liked the weird little guy.

Who was apparently comfortable enough around him to walk around naked after his shower. Nudity was inherently sexual to Dean, it kind of took him a while to wrap his head around the fact that it wasn’t for Cas.

Cas was putting away laundry that still sat in a hamper against the wall. They had two dressers stacked on top of each other. It was probably unsafe, but the apartment was fucking small. Cas was folding and organizing his laundry. He even folded his boxers.

Dean watched him sleepily, rubbing a little crust out of his eye. Cas eventually picked out a pair of boxers and put them on.

Holy shit.

Dean squinted and leaned forward. He could not be seeing this right.

“Cas do you have a fucking tattoo?”

Cas had his back to Dean, clear as day there was a patch of inked pattern at the small of his back. Shit he had a fucking tramp stamp. It looked like little wings with a halo perched above them, stretching between his back dimples above the curve of his nice ass.

He twisted around, looked at Dean, and down at himself like maybe he’d forgotten that was there.

“Yes.”

“Dude seriously. You have a tramp stamp? When did you get that?”

Cas rolled one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “I’ve had it for years. When I turned eighteen, one of my older brothers decided to secret me away for a night of debauchery. It didn’t turn out quite like he planned.”

Dean was pretty awake now, still sprawled on his bed - the bottom bunk - in his boxers. Cas was still folding laundry. He never talked about his family much.

“No shit. So what happened?”

Cas turned and looked at him. Sighed like he was put upon. But Dean could see that sneaky little smirk in the corner of his eyes. He was learning to read Cas pretty good.

"Well. He took me to a party, at one of his friends apartment I believe. We both got stupendously drunk. He tried to hook me up with a girl. I was terrified of sex, and I didn’t really understand why yet. I thought there was something wrong with me and I ought to try. She was rough around the edges but actually pretty nice. Meg. She was a tattoo artist. Somehow my fumbling attempts to get out of having sex turned into an agreement to get a tattoo from her instead. Lucifer got a matching one.”

“Holy shit. Wait. Ok. You have a brother named Lucifer. And I’m guessing this is the first time you got drunk. Then the chick you were supposed to lose your virginity to - and didn’t - gave you a tattoo instead. A fucking tramp stamp. And your brother got a matching one?”

“Yes. Lucifer is heavily tattooed though, but I’m not sure if the angel wings quite fit in with all the skulls and snakes. I’m not certain how they convinced me to get one. It was an interesting night.”

“Oh man. Why angel wings?”

“All of us are named after angels.”

“All of you? You have a lot of brothers and sisters?“

"Four older brothers, two older sisters, and a younger sister.”

“Wow. No shit. So do you still keep in touch with Lucifer.”

“He’s in jail.”

“What?”

“Something to do with drugs, I’m not really sure of the details.”

“Oh my god, dude, do you live in a soap opera?”

“My family can be a bit melodramatic.”

Castiel paused his folding, eyes downcast, holding on to a pair of jeans. Dean felt like he probably shouldn’t prod. But he was really fucking curious.

“So what about the rest of them?”

“Hm?”

“You don’t really talk about them much.”

“Hm. Well, after my night out with my brother, which really was the first act of rebellion I ever committed, my oldest brother Michael found out about it and he was furious. He… convinced me to fall back in line. After high school I came to college here, and I was supposed to study economics, so I could work in my father’s business. But after finishing my core credits and taking a few classes for it though, I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to. I switched my major to art, I had taken a few classes as extra because I thought it looked interesting. My father found out, he threatened to cut me off if I didn’t get 'back on track’ which I refused to do. So. He cut me off.”

Cas actually used fucking air quotes.

“Shit, what kind of parent does that. What about your mom?”

“Ah, she died when I was I was seven.”

“Damn. Sorry.”

He shook his head, putting more clothes away. “Cancer. It happens.”

“Yeah. So you’re still doing what you want, in school?”

“Yes. I have scholarships that cover almost all of it, I talked to my financial advisor about getting loans for the rest. But, my father was covering room and board too. It was worrying about that, that terrified me most.”

“Yeah you didn’t seem too good when you showed up.”

“Well it’s better now. I have my freedom.”

“And you don’t really keep in touch with any of your family?”

“No.”

“Damn.”

“It’s all right.”

“Man I don’t have much but I don’t know what I’d do without my mom and my brother.”

“What happened to your father? If, that’s all right to ask.”

“My ma divorced him when I was real little. We saw him for a while, you know, on the weekends. I guess he was an alcoholic. Right before high school, he took off. I don’t think ma even knows where he went to.”

Cas had finished putting his clothes away. He pulled a t-shirt on and sat cross legged at the foot of Dean’s bed. Dean scooted up a little to give him room.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, my mom is awesome, one good parent is more than a lot of people get.”

“That’s good then.”

Cas smiled at him and they lapsed into something quiet. It sounded like there was a cat - or raccoon - going through the dumpster out back. Every now and then Dean noticed that Cas stared a little bit too hard to be normal. But Dean kind of stared back. So that was okay, right.

Yawning and stretching his arms up, Dean looked around the small shoebox of a bedroom that two full grown men shared. With stacked dressers and bunk beds. Dean had an old ratty Zeppelin poster on one wall, a sentimental thing. Mostly there wasn’t any wall space. The curtain over the single window was actually a blanket that he’d stapled up. There were cigarette burns in the carpet from the previous tenant that the landlord never bothered to replace.

It was kind of a shit hole.

Dean nudged Cas’ hip with his foot. “So. Is your freedom all it’s cracked up to be?”

Cas swatted at his foot and didn’t even bother to look around, just stared at Dean, when he answered, “More than.”


End file.
